TBLISI, Georgia (ABP) — Baptists around the world continued to respond with prayer and humanitarian aid to people displaced by continuing conflict between Georgia and Russia Aug. 29. Meanwhile, Russian Baptists have invited their Georgian counterparts to discuss the future.
Russia has been slow to remove its troops from Georgia after a cease-fire was declared Aug. 13. Thousands have been displaced in the conflict that began earlier this month when Georgian authorities attempted to regain control over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia.
The province is regarded by international law as officially part of Georgia, but many of its residents consider themselves Russians and hold Russian citizenship.
The province of Abkhazia also stepped up its continuing effort to break away from Georgia. Leaders of the former Soviet Union had made Abkhazia part of Georgia, and Abkhazia has fought for independence since the USSR’s collapse in 1991. Abkhazia declared its independence from Georgia in 1992 but has not secured international recognition.
Russians sent thousands of troops into Georgia to assist both provinces on Aug. 7 after Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili launched an assault in South Ossetia. The Baptist World Alliance estimates that more than 158,000 individuals have been displaced by the fighting.
In the midst of conflict, Russian Baptists are seeking to restore friendship with Georgian Baptists, according to Vitaly Vlasenko, director of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists’ department for external church relations.
In an Aug. 24 statement, Vlasenko called on believers to “rise above the fray; rise above narrow, selfish political partisanship.”
He acknowledged that Baptists in the two countries had “grown distant” in the past 15 years, laying part of the blame on propaganda efforts. He called on both sides to recognize their part in the conflict and the results of war.
Vlasenko extended an invitation to Georgia and to “other nations and peoples who were once part of the Eastern Bloc” to talk about the area’s past and future.
“How can we who once lived in the Soviet sphere become a great force for peace?” he wrote. “We by no means want to fall back into the ways and conditions of the Cold War…. Together we evangelical Christians can help reverse the present trend which is leading us down the path of a renewed Cold War.”
Vlasenko said monetary donations can be sent through the North Ossetian Mission of Christian Compassion (www.nomcc.org), which primarily assists children, or through the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia’s Betheli Humanitarian Association (www.ebcgeorgia.org).
In an Aug. 28 press statement, Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey and General Secretary Neville Callam called on Baptists worldwide to pray for peace in the region.
According to the release, Baptist World Aid, BWA’s humanitarian arm (www.bwanet.org), has sent funds, including a contribution from the German Baptist Union, for relief efforts in Georgia.
International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches USA has designated a $7,500 emergency grant. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has given $5,000 for relief efforts, with its Georgia state affiliate, which has a partnership with the former Soviet country, sending $2,000.
CBF of Georgia has partnered with the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia since 2006, according to a CBF statement. Georgia CBF supports several ministries in its partner country, including a care center for the elderly, an orphanage, a theological school and a women-in-ministry organization.
Southern Baptists sent a four-person team to the Georgian capital, Tblisi, Aug. 18 to assess needs. They were scheduled to begin remodeling a building in the devastated Georgian city of Gori on Aug. 25.
A Texas Baptist disaster-relief feeding team headed to Georgia Aug. 27, and teams from the Kentucky Baptist Convention and Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma are scheduled to go next week, according to Jim Brown, stateside director of Baptist Global Relief, the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board’s aid arm (www.baptistglobalresponse.com).
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Americans act as Georgian Baptists call for aid, end to conflict